That's from the Island's kiddies page yesterday. No kidding. The Island, of "Pubic Money" fame published this poem on it's children section, the Happy Island.


See this for a full page picture of the page which includes the poem. Heh. The kids these days I tell you...

The Island think it's the work of a net terrorist:

We wish to bring to the notice of our readers that there has been a sinister attempt by an unknown group to disrupt the operations of this newspaper and to tarnish its image through electronic means.

It all began in 2006, when a London-based correspondent warned us against such a move.

Recently, another newspaper, too, became a victim of hackers who tampered with its website.

The e-mail accounts of the editor and the features editor of The Island are the targets through which they sought to disrupt our system by transmitting specially designed programmes. We adopted precautions but we now learn that on Tuesday, when we usually print the children’s section issued on Thursday, we got badly beaten.

An infected junk document ate into an innocent poem that a young contributor had sent in to share with others, after the proof reading stage.

The ill effects of the attack were noticed yesterday as well in the main section of the paper but we managed to eliminate them in time for printing.

We have initiated a thorough investigation into the incident and apologise to our readers, especially children, for the mishap. [link]

Aney meh, editor, go to hell machang. Someone screwed up editing, admit that and move on, life's like that.

Here's an excerpt from the News Release from University of Chicago.

The University of Chicago is establishing a center for path-breaking research in economics to build upon the strengths of economists throughout the University and to honor the contributions of Milton Friedman, considered by many to be the leading economist of the 20th century.

The University’s investment in facilities will be about $200 million, with half of that amount establishing an operating endowment and the remainder allocated for facilities and other start-up costs. The majority of the funds will be raised in donations from alumni and business leaders around the world.

“The goal of the Institute is to build on the University’s existing leadership position and make the Milton Friedman Institute a primary intellectual destination for economics by creating a robust forum for engagement of our faculty and students with scholars and policymakers from around the world,” said President Robert J. Zimmer. “The Milton Friedman Institute will continue Chicago’s extraordinary tradition of creating new ideas that stimulate the academic world and innovative approaches that influence policy.” [Read More]

Go see the website. Yet another outpost fighting for liberty. Excellent.

No really, if you click "vision" on their website it comes up empty.

is that no one really knows why they are so high. At least for sure. Everyone has their own pet theory or scapegoat - peak oil, speculation, ethanol, hungry Indians, Ben Bernanke, you name it. This dawned to me when Tyler Cowen blogged about this Ajay Shah piece I sent him with little to add.

Ajay Shah's take is probably the most interesting one I've read on the topic. Do read it. More from me on food prices, read this.

Could be Bob Barr. The former republican seeking the nomination of the Libertarian Party. From Reason,

The smallish room Bob Barr booked for his presidential announcement was overflowing with journalists. I've seen every Ron Paul 2008 event held at the venue, and they never drew this sort of interest: There were, I think, four working reporters at the press conference announcing the haul from the first moneybomb. But Barr's announcement drew live reporters from the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and The Washington Post (even if it was the famously snarky "Sketch" author Dana Milbank). Barr foreign policy pal Doug Bandow stood by him at the podium, and foreign policy maven Jim Bovard sat in the audience.

Read the whole thing.

Conservatives breathed a sigh of relief when Ron Paul said he won't run in third party, the LP literally offered him the nomination if he wanted it, Paul seem to want to reform the GOP from the inside, best of luck to him. If Paul ran he might have taken off just enough votes off McCain to make him loose some key states, and therefore the election.

Now what we have is a situation where most GOP activists are not enthusiastic about their nominee. McCain is not your out-the-box conservatives, he's not the religious-right's man, nor does he excites the fiscal conservatives. Barr, can and should cash in. He sounds much more conservative than Ron Paul, although he's lot less principled (Barr supported the Patriot Act for example). But if he gets the LP nomination, he should give McCain a run for his money.

This would mean an Obama presidency, but if Barr gets enough votes and "Naders" McCain that will teach the section of the GOP who are increasingly hostile to it's libertarian wing.